dow. we were up 132. we're up 100 right now. s&p doesn't look like we're going to get that all-time high. we're still about two points away. as the ceo from ingersoll rand rings the closing bell here at the new york stock exchange. stay tune for hour two of the "closing bell" with maria bartiromo at the milken conference. i'll see you tomorrow. and it is 4:00 on wall street. 1:00 p.m. in los angeles. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo coming to you today from l.a. and the milken conference. the global conference sponsored by the milken institute. coming up i'll be talking to some of the most influential names on wall street. people allocating capital in a market that continues to move higher. it just won't quit. up next, peter weinberg will join me. cliff robbins. and boone pickens also joining us, founder of bp capital.

all ahead. first, a huge day on the street today. s&p 500 trying to close at a record high. take a look at how we're selling out on the street today. dow jones industrial up 105. volume on the light side. nonetheless, prices on the upside. nasdaq composite up 27 points today. almost 1%. finishing the day at 3307. s&p 500, 1593. gain of .75%. 11 points higher on the standard and poors. more on today's big rally and bring in eric ristubon of russell investments. andrew keen. doug cody. and kenny pulkari of o'neill securities finishing up his trades and will join us momentarily. good to have you on the program. eric, you saw the friday gdp report having an impact today. despite the disappointment, how is that possible? everybody complained that the gdp report was below expectations and here we have more money moving into stocks? >> yeah.

disappointed exactly the right way. when you look below the headline number of of 2.5% and you look at the composition, what you saw is housing is doing very well in the u.s. consumer is doing very well. all of the miss on the expectations was the fact that government spending was down 4%. that's exactly what we want the government to be doing is when the economy sfretrengthens and y can do more fiscal constraint, they're doing it. >> exactly. that's what we're seeing across the world, by the way. doug cody, how are you investing here? what are you recommending clients do in this environment? >> first, i see a tale of two markets. i see the u.s. market going on a tear. i see bond yields going sub, going bearish. which market is right? i want to be in both markets. i want to be in the equity market. fully allocated. as well as bonds. i wouldn't be out of bonds and too much in equities. one of the things i see is that investors are being too narrow in their selection of s&p 500.

i want to broaden my horizon. i recommend being in mid caps, global reits as well as global bonds and some high yield. you want to caption this market, even emerging markets far and wide for the mean reversion trade. >> yeah. that's certainly what you're seeing so far. yet there's still questions about this market. andrew, let me ask you about gold. because you're shorting gold, despite the recent rebound, right? that one day where gold lost so much value. you think that's going to go back to that and it continues? >> yeah. i'm shorting it, but i'm shorting it through equity options with the gld. this is an aggressive position for me. i wouldn't just outright short gold. it could be up $100 tomorrow. but this 143 level in the gld is exactly where it sold off when it was down over $100. resistance becomes support, support resistance. there's more head wind for gold. we've seen a nice rally in the global growth stocks. x, pbr, fcx.

cole, china, steel is up a lot over the last six to eight days . i don't mind fading some of those. also in the fxe, the euro. i don't mind getting short a little bit through equity options. but i don't want to be put in anything too aggressive to the short side on these housing stocks, consumer staples, anything linked to the u.s. story. >> i guess i'm just trying to figure out, you know, why it is that the stock market is continuing to, you know, make new highs and monies keep coming into equities, and yet the bond market is telling a different story. doug, what do you make of this bifurcation between equities and bonds? what is this trying to say in terms of the fundamental backdrop here? >> well, look at what's going on this week. you have the fomc meeting. you have the ecb meeting. right now there's expectations because of bad news out of europe that the ecb is going to cut 25 bids. i think that would be market positive. everyone wants don't fight the

fed, don't fight the ecb. on the bund side it's a very different indicator. i was told don't be in bonds. because we're going to get inflation and reflation. that has not happened. the 10-year broke 1.7 on the downside. we're in the 1.6s. the bond market has aquity mark concerned about the central bank stimulus. that's why it's good to have a balanced, good 60/40 portfolio would be just right right now. >> yeah. that's definitely the focus in the stock market. no doubt about it. the fed basically talking or suggesting when the stimulus starts to end. kenny, what went on the end of the day here? the market seemed to be finding its groove again. >> the sense is a couple of things. first of all just like the other guests said it is absolutely the ecb, absolutely the fed. we're getting weaker u.s. macro data. look at the dow's fed survey today. completely off the charts.

yet the market continues to move higher because everyone just expects that, you know, the fed is going to sit there and continue to support. that coupled with the news out of italy this morning, which kind of takes the political instability off the table, was really kind of a market mover. that and , listen, it's the end of the month. i know it's not the end of the quarter. it's the end of the month. there's window dressing. they want to mark them to the highs. may is going to start all over again. i'm cautious. we're right at the highs. there's no reason to be here. the market wants to pull back but everyone knows it's not going to pull back much. >> bob, can you really say there's no reason to be here? corporate cash is at record levels, talking about almost $4 trillion on corporate balance sheets. kenny, what about volume? volume was anemic today. how does that play into all this? >> that's part of the problem. volume is anemic because people are much more cautious. all i'm saying when i say there's no reason to be here, the market is clearly ahead of where the economy is. it goes right to the point of

your other guest. the bond market is telling you one story. the equity market is telling you another. the fact is the equity market is artificially stimulated. this is the conversation that keeps happening because you can't fight every central bank around the world as every central bank keeps pumping money into the system. at this point you got to ride with it. but you have to be nimble enough to be able to make very quick decisions and make sure that you're properly set up for a move lower. a move lower in my opinion is going to be 2% or 3%. i don't think it's going to go much below 1565. >> who's buying tech right now? interesting what's going on in technology. because when you look at the nasdaq, you're talk about a 12-year high. yet when you look at big name techs like ibm, apple, you know, google, they're all way down from their highs. what's the story in technology right now, eric rustubin? >> people are buying technology. they're buying it on the base that they think the emerging markets are going to get traction and you're going to see better corporate spends on technology out of the emerging markets which are hugely important part of the revenue base for our tech firms.

i think that's probably it. we're still underweight technology on the margin. but we don't -- we think a lot of weakness has already been priced in. it's probably going to get better all things considered in the not too distant future. >> anybody else thoughts on tech? >> i think in microsoft -- >> go ahead. doug? >> if you look at microsoft -- >> i'm sorry. >> technology is seeing a global growth slowdown. technology, all the big companies in technology are reacting to the third recession in five years in europe. and i think that's an ash tor of corporate profits going forward. it hasn't been that good. everyone is ratcheting down global growth expectations. >> tech has gotten really beaten up. if, if the second half of this year is as good as a lot of analysts and stratists are going to say money has to go into tech because it has underperformed. people are going to look to get in front of that towards the year end. they're going to buy it now and

hope for the story as we move to the end of the year. >> gentlemen, thank you very much. appreciate the conversation. see you soon. today's all time market high is creating a buzz here at the global conference. we are going to get into investing next. two titans of wall street. peter weinberg. cliff robbins, founder and ceo of blew harbour group. both men oversee a combined $10 billion in assets. find out how they are putting some money to work. later, billionaire oil tycoon boone pickens says the u.s. is on the path to energy independent. wait till you hear what he says is taking us there. you're watching the "closing bell" on cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪ on the road ♪ and we know that it goes on and on ♪ [ female announcer ] you're the boss of your life. in charge of making memories and keeping promises. ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future.

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hi, everybody. we're back. i'm at the global conference in los angeles. the milken institute sponsoring this conference. s&p 500 at another all time high. as we debate what's driving this market higher we are not leaving out the role of the activist

investor. and the push to bring more value to shareholders. particularly at a time when you've fwgot so much cash on balance sheets. companies like herbalife, even apple. a number of companies within the energy space. could tact vis investor sometimes cause more harm than good for a company? talk more about that right now. two power houses on both sides of the debate, peter weinberg and cliff robbins. gentlemen, good to have you on the program. thank you so much for joining us and working through this topic for us. let's talk a bit about the role of the activist investor. we've seen activism sprouting up much more. cliff, you have a different approach than somebody who comes in and bullies management to do something with all the cash and get the stock up. talk to us about your approach. >> our approach is different at blue harbour. over nine years we've never sued a company, taken a proxy.

we're working with companies to create stockholder value. we're investing with companies who want us as lead stockholders and finding management teams looking for ways to earn value. this can be done quite effectively in a collaborative, friendly manner. >> it's got to be scary, though, for a company when they hear a big investor has taken a sizable stake in their company. i imagine one of the first calms they're going to make is to an adviser like you, peter. what's your answer to a company ceo who says, okay, now we know, you know, the carl icahns of the world, cliff robbins of the world, have taken a stake in my company? >> when management teams call us, we start to get engaged with them on where the company's headed. all management teams and all boards know that they work for shareholders. that's -- they have to. they do that. i don't know a company that ignores its shareholder base. so when we get olved, what we really do is we try to put our shoes -- our feet in the shoes of the activis dynamics are

of the company. and really where the company's headed. so that will really play into what you do and how you respond to an activist. >> i guess one of the issues is that there's so much cash on balance sheets. you look at some of these companies with $100 plus billion. a lot of it overseas of money on the balance sheet. investors say we want that money back to shareholders. why do you think companies are holding so much cash on balance sheets first of all? >> cash on balance sheets is really a ripe opportunity for active investors to create value. it started with the financial crisis where companies were unaware of the situation they were in. they spent a lot of time deleveraging, raising cash. now rates have collapsed. this cash is sitting there earning very little. you can help a company find creative ways to play that cash. it can be buy backs. it can be special dividends. it can be acquisitions. there's really in today's rate environment, it really isn't a great reason why a company should be sitting with inordinate amounts of cash. it's our job to find those

companies that are actually going to create value by deploying that cash in a better way. >> isn't it at some point when you have a lot of cash on the balance sheet, it becomes a problem? you can't sit on all that cash forever. you're going to have to put it to work somewhere. >> i think that's generally right. although sometimes what happens, though, a company might have a plan to use that cash. and it's just not public yet. so there'll be a number of maybe a large acquisition or some other use of that cash in terms of spending capital in the business. sometimes there's a piece of that cash that a company would say, you know, what, we haven't said publicly, but we're going to use it. that's the other side of the coin. >> give us an example of some situations, cliff, you've been involved with where that friendly approach worked. >> well, you know, as i said, it's worked for us over nine years in many situations. right now we're the lead stockholder in a company called khaki. a great company in the security anti-terrorism space. we've been helping them create

value by doing basically a creeping lbl. they've brought back 30% of their company. jack n the box. we've helped that company by selling off hundreds of millions of dollars of stores to franchi franchisees and buying back stocks. in both these cases, in all the cases in which we're investing, the reason why companies are listening to us is they think the ideas make sense and they can create value. we're thrilled when firms like peter's get involved as well. frankly we want -- if companies think our ideas aren't creating value we want to know that. we want professional advisers to advise them as well. we're all in this to do one thing, create stockholder value. we just want to find the situations where we're aligned with our management teams. >> i want to know the metrics you both look at. for example, cliff, when you look at a potential for investing in a company, what are the metrics that you say, you know, this actually could -- this could -- this is a ripe company that is poised to -- it can go up a lot. it's going to really create shareholder value if they took certain steps.

what are some of the metrics. >> i'm a value investor. i've been early in my career a partner of kkr. i like free cash flow. i'm looking for companies growing and generating lots of free cash flow. we would underwrite to a 30% to 40% return. can't guarantee we can always make that. we wouldn't make the core investment if we didn't think we could make a 30% to 40% return over a couple year risk horizon. with reasonable downside support coming from the sustainable free cash flow. >> in terms of advicing companies, peter, what are the metrics you look at that, perhaps, point to you to get involved in terms of we could see an acquisition here? this company would look better with this company. there should be some consolidation. talk to us about your metrics. >> yeah, we look at a number of different things. i think that the -- if you look at the strategy of a company, you look at the governance of the company, and you look at the capital structure of the company, those are really the three things that both companies and boards look at. but also shareholders look at. and so i think when you look at those -- those, you sort of

think forward. and think about, you know, what -- how can you create the most shareholder value in each of those different categories? that's really where the kind of intersection is between the activist investor and the boards of companies is really in those different areas. >> what are you seeing right now in terms of m & a, peter? are you expecting we're going to see more deal flow this year? >> i've been saying this for a long time. the -- we had this huge week in february. where we thought -- i think many of us thought this was sort of the beginning of a big storm, almost, a perfect storm of m & a in a good sense. i think it's just confidence levels still are not at a level that's going to drive consistent m & a in our view. and we see that in our clients all over the world. in the u.s., in europe, in the middle east. we see that. you know, i think it's a matter of time. and sometimes there's some situations where people feel they have to do something because it's never going to be there again as an opportunity. and that's the kind of activity we see now. >> pete is absolutely right that

the number one determinant of m & a is confidence in the board room. that's the one ingredient that has been missing. but that's increasing. we're seeing a lot more confidence in board room. that'll be the final piece. all the other seeds are there. the low rates. the accommodating financing environment. the hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded capital commitments in private equity hands. a creative nature of all these deals. all the ingredients are there. confidence in the board room is the last piece. that's coming as we're distancing ourselves from the financial crisis and the european financial crisis and the fiscal cliff. in our world, in the small mid cap space, as you know, we invest in companies $1 billion to $5 billion. we actually have seen a good deal of m & a. recently our companies, our core positions, have been acquired. we're seeing it in our small mid cap world. i believe that we will see broadly more m & a because the setup is so great. the missing piece is the confidence as peter said. >> you're absolute i right. that's why i asked the question. i can't believe with rates at

rock bottom levels and $4 trillion of cash on balance sheets we're not seeing lots more situations. you're a value guy. do you see value in the public market here at record levels? >> i do. even though we're at record levels, i've been investing for about 25 years. i've never seen such a high spread between the cash return in the market and the risk free rate. while stocks is certainly higher than they were a few years ago, the market is telling us that the underlying economy is healing. consumer sentiment is okay. the housing market may be bottoming. you know, you may have to work a little harder to find value in the market than you did a year or two ago, but it is there. >> what about you from an investing standpoint? do you see value? where are you putting money to work? >> you know, our -- we have a number of funds in our firm. i spend my time on the advisory side working with companies and boards. but on our asset management business, we have a number of different funds that focus, i would say, in not niche, but kind of special places in the market. whether it's distress or whether

it's asset related investing or whether it's real estate in europe. so we kind of look for those different places in the market where there's opportunity. >> all right. we will leave it there. gentlemen, great conversation. so appreciate your time today. thank you so much, peter weinburg, cliff robbins. breaking news. josh lipton with the breakdown of the nutrition and weight management company numbers. >> hey, maria. herb herbalife just reporting. the 17th straight quarter in which they've beaten on the bottom line. top line comes just in line. reportedly looking ahead herbalife seeing 1.14 to 1.18. street wanted to see 1.26. herbalife the subject of a public spat between carl icahn who is long and per shing square's bill akman who calls it a pyramid scheme. back to you. >> josh, thank you so much.

we're looking at that chart. looking good there. s&p 500 looked good today hitting another all time high. we're going to talk about whether today's rally has legs rest of the week into next week and this year. then some shore communities on the east coast still rebuilding a full six months after superstorm sandy. what if any lingering impact sandy is having on the insurance bottom line, the industry. back in a moment. [ male announcer ] what?! investors could lose

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welcome back. as we have been telling you the s&p barely closed at a record high but a high nonetheless. where does the market head next? kevin karin, danielle hughes, ron insana. good to see everybody. kevin, are you buying this market? [ indiscernible ] >> we're going to fix -- you've got a microphone problem there, kevin. let us fix the technicals. then come back to you. ron insana, what's your take on stocks here? >> maria, you know, i think that, you know, people are trying to find reasons not to be bullish on the market. listen, i've worried about a correction now for a couple of months. the most we've gotten is a little bit more than 2% on the downside. you know, earnings are coming through slightly better than expected. central banks around the world and i think europe might be the next one this week continue to ease monetary policy. the fed may hold rates down longer than people think.

so, listen, central banks are the key here along with improved earnings, along with grudging improvement in economic growth. i don't think there's any reason to fight this stock market. too many people hate it for me not to love it. >> yeah. that's what we were saying earlier. everybody's looking for the next selloff and it's just not happening. any selloff we get is being met with a buy on the dip mentality. >> that's right. if i could count how many people have said on your show, maria, they'd be buying on the dips i would run out of fingers and toes. but i think the thing to remember is there's been an awful lot of inflows into equity linked to etfs. something like $40 billion in the first quarter alone which is an 80% increase over the year prior, 2012. you get to may, people start to get a little nervous. as you mentioned earlier in the show, we've had the past three years, we've seen a down tick in may. but i tend to think that that's kind of a time that things go on sale. being a girl i love a sale. i look to buy some of the names that have maybe gotten a little bit out of reach for me. and would step in at that point.

>> kevin, what about you? how is your microphone doing? can you weigh? >> we're doing better. yes, i can. we're finding value in some areas. we still like companies that are paying consistent dividend. consistency really is key here. earnings have flattened out. there is signs of fundamental weakness in the economy which has gotten central bankers' attention. we are looking at an environment where central banks around the world are looking to ease more. not because things are improving on the margin, but maybe weakening somewhat. i think that that has contributed to a move in the market this year which has been far in excess of the move in stock -- in underlying earnings. so we're bullish longer term. but we're cognizant of the fact that some of the fundamentals on the margin have begun to slow down. >> maria, if i could address that? >> yeah. >> two interesting points, one of wall street's favorite economists in recent morning postings. number one, since this bull market started in 2009, over $2

trillion in stock has been retired through buy backs, m & a activity, cash returned through dividends and things like that. he also pointed out when you look at fourth quarter gdp if you extract the government sector, private sector gdp grew 4% rather than the 2.5% print that we saw. i think some of the weakness that people are worried about is not there in the private sector economy. and some of the reasons to worry about stocks with respect to inflows of money coming in suggesting that, you know, demand is increasing at the wrong time in the cycle. supply keeps being reduced on wall street. that tends to drive prices higher in a secular fashion. >> it's also the fact that, you know, what are the alternatives, kevin? if not stocks where do you allocate capital today given the fact there's no yield anywhere you look? >> that's exactly the point. i think ron made a very good point about the role of government in all of this. you go back to 2009, it's a very interesting point to pick. the starting point for measuring, of course. if you throw in trillion dollar

deficits in 2009, '10, '11, '12, obviously that had a big impact on the economy. we've moved from accommodative fiscal policy to somewhat contractionary as you bring budget deficits down. that will have a dampening effect on the economy no matter how you measure it. the way in which the central banks respond to that is by printing more. we're seeing japan now doing 20% of their economy in terms of qe. more is expected, perhaps, wednesday, thursday from the -- from our central bank and europe in terms of more information on how to proceed from here. but ultimately the governments are having a big impact on what's happening fundamentally. and you have to pay attention to them along with the private sector. >> we'll leave it there. gentlemen and lady, we appreciate it. appreciate your time tonight. up negs, we're zeroing in on energy. energy independence. billionaire oil tycoon boone pickens says the u.s. is making

its way there. he'll join me in a first on cnbc interview about making money on energy next. later, hard to believe it's been six months since superstorm sandy battered the east coast. hartford financial ceo will talk with me exclusively about the company's bottom line. where it's still taking a hit from that devastating storm. back in a moment on "closing bell." and never back down. who believe the american dream doesn't just happen, it's something you have to work for. ♪ we're for those kinds of people. because we're that kind of airline. and we never stop looking for a better way. it's how we've grown into america's largest domestic airline. we are southwest. welcome aboard. with fidelity's new options platform, we've completely integrated every step of the process, making it easier to try filters and strategies... to get a list of equity options... evaluate them with our p&l calculator...

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sfwlnchts welcome back. herbalife shares volatile after reporting tonight. the chart went all the way up and came back down. over to you, herb. >> all over the place, maria. take a look at the in your opinion -- numbers. sales growth, volume growth, sales leader growth. all the numbers are down. growth of those are down sequentially and year over year. also look at the beat and you look at the guidance, you have to pay attention to the tax rate. tax rate is lower. i think you also have sales. sg and a as a percent of revenue off a little bit. you can see there's little movement. the real thing here is going to be tomorrow morning 11:00 east coast time, 8:00 west coast time, the company will hold its earnings call. people will be looking for color on this. anything dealing with any deterioration or change in the

distributor sales force. between here and there, i suspect, maria, people will try to parse this thing every which way as you can see in the market they're doing now. back to you. >> herb, thank you so much. exactly what's happening as you -- as you have choreographed that. welcome back. oil futures on the rise, of course, as expectations for boosts to economic stimulus from global central banks helping to fuel a climb past $94 a barrel on oil. billionaire investor boone pickens is with me now. he'll be speaking this week on the future of an oil economy. he joins me now to talk about that. first on cnbc interview. also want to talk about the u.s. and what we need to to to reassess our energy plan and become that energy exporter we've all been talking about so much. good to see you, boone. >> good to see you. >> thank you so much for joining us. let me ask you about oil supply and demand in this country first as the starting point here. you've said the u.s. is on a path to energy independence. you've said this, and you've been saying this for a lot of years. when? >> well, i've been here ten

years. and i can still remember ten years ago, we weren't sure how much natural fwgas we had. we didn't think we had enough. today, we have more natural gas than any country in the world. >> but are we using that natural gas? >> we're using it, yes. but we could use it in a lot of other places. it's the cheapest fuel in the world. >> can natural gas be used to fuel vehicles? >> fuel? >> vehicles? >> sure, yeah. yeah. there are 20 million vehicles in the world today on natural gas. ten years ago when i was here, there were 200,000. i mean, it's unbelievable. it is moving, too. but the united states has been very, very slow to do it. they've been slow. but it's going to happen. >> when you say it's going to happen, how do we know it's going to happen? we know that there's this massive debate around fraking. we know there's this massive debate around the keystone

pipeline. the environmentalists are out in force saying this is going to be a negative for the u.s. economy. 's going to get in our water flow. what do you say about that? >> oh, i almost have to laugh. i'm serious. the epa has now said that fraking is safe. okay? it is safe. there 800,000 wells have been fraked. i saw my first frac job in 1952. '52. i fraked over 2,000 wells myself. fraking's safe. the pipeline, keystone, we've got to do that. >> that seems to me like a no brainer. >> it is. >> and yet, why are we still debating it? >> well, i don't know. but it's -- see, there's not anybody in government that actually has control or the authority to manage energy. they don't have it.

so now, you know, the keystone pipeline, you know who has to pass on that. the secretary of state. >> what you'd like to see is a policy in place to actually capitalize on some of this resource that america has? >> exactly. that's all. that's all i want to do. >> do you think in reality that will happen? >> yes. it will. >> when? >> well, you're moving natural gas into heavy duty trucking. you'll move natural gas into the railroads. and when that happens, bnsf will be the huge leader. if they decide to go in that direction, and they're testing it now, they will. because the fuel is so cheap. >> all right. i want to ask you more about where you're allocating capital and who the companies are to bet on in this revolution. but if this is all going to materialize, i would have to guess that oil prices go much lower. >> well, wait just a second. >> okay. >> okay. >> there's a lot of supply. >> there's a lot of supply, you say. but we still import in the united states 8 million barrels of oil a day.

okay? that oil price is set by opec. >> doesn't that -- what we're going to import go down if, in fact, we are generating our own energy supply? >> no. the cost of the oil, it's expensive. and so what happens, you get oil prices now. you know, you're $94, $95 for wti. you drop down ten dollars and your drilling will stop. right now you've got 1,800 rigs operating in the united states. and you have only 364 of them drilling for natural gas. so what's happening to your natural gas price? it's going up. >> sure, sure. what's your sense in terms of the companies on the front lines of really being able to grow based on this whole idea that we will, in fact, capitalize on some of these opportunities? how are you investing in terms of just -- >> oh, you know, i hate to get on here and, you know, plug any companies. but, i mean, you want to talk

about oil or you want to talk about natural gas? >> i want to talk about making money in energy. >> okay. that's -- if you're going to go oil, i mean, it's -- i mean, there they are. they're out there. the ones that are doing very well. you can look at pioneer. you can look at cancho. those companies out there in west texas. you can look at continental resources. that's up in the balkan. all those dpacompanies are doin extremely well. then you switch over. is it time to look at natural gas companies? if it is you look at companies like chesapeake, sand ridge. >> has the market figured this out? do you think valuations are attractive in this space or do you think this is still an undiscovered story? >> well, you see energy has moved in -- it was a dog, you know, two or three months ago. and natural gas has picked up. oil has held in there. you're going to -- right now

you're going to have some unusual things happen in -- with west texas intermediate. because of kushing and the supply and you're able to move -- when you bring that line on from west texas down to the gulf coast, that's going to create a lot of opportunity. actually, they have their shortage of takeaway capacity in the permian basin. of all places. that is huge out there. now, america has -- all at once has found themselves as the cheapest energy in the world. we have it. that's it. now if we had some leadership, i'm not keen about exporting natural gas. but i'll do it. i'll do it because the producer is entitled to go into the best market they can get. okay? but if we had leadership in washington, they would help increase the demand, use the cleaner, cheaper fuel here, and don't export it and import less

oil. but why are we over in the straits of hormuz protecting 17 million barrels a day and using less than 10% of it? that's nuts. >> real quick, what happened to all the alternative ideas. solar. they collapsed. a number of the other energy alternatives. >> wind, too. i took a big hit on the wind. but it's because you've got to subsidize it. the -- >> are they dead in the water? wind, solar? >> wind will come in, into its own, when natural gas gets to $6. because wind is priced off the margin. and natural gas is priced -- is a marginal fuel. when it's $6, it'll give wind a chance again. but not at 4.50. >> that's really what to look for, prices start getting away from you, that's when the alternatives come into play. >> exactly. >> boone, good to have you on the program as always. anything about energy, boone pickens is your guy. we're happy you spent the time with ugs today. thank you so much. the s&p 500, will it jump to

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all right. navigating tomorrow right now. 30 seconds on the clock. our next guest will tell us what could move the market tomorrow. allen gail of ridgeworth capital management. lathe clydale. allen, kick us off.

30 seconds on the clock. what do you want to prepare for tomorrow? >> first of all, we've been pleased with our equity overweight in the ridgeworth allocation strategies. tomorrow we're going to be looking to see about how well the economic momentum is doing. so be watching the chicago ism. we'll be focusing on consumer sentiment. and obviously the case-shiller home price index. the question is, how much is the economy slowing as we exit the first quarter and go into the second quarter? >> all right. we'll watch that. thank you so much, sir. lathe, break it down for us. 30 seconds on the clock. what do you want to be prepared for? >> yeah. hi, maria. tomorrow we're watching the chicago purchasing manager's index as we look for another -- tomorrow's consensus is for little to no change. with some of the unknowns such as sequestration the financial crisis and cyprus behind us, we're expecting consumer confidence to improve slightly for the month of april. such a gain would indicate favorable consumer spending in

the coming months. we'll also be watching the s&p 500 index for a close above 15 to keep this rally alive. >> all right. consumer confidence. home prices seem to be on the agenda there. let me ask you, what is that background, laif, behind you. is that a real background? where are you right there? >> i'm in reno, nevada. those are the mountains to the west of reno overlooking lake tahoe. >> absolutely spectacular. absolutely spectacular shot. amazing snow still on those mountains. good to see you both. thank you so much, gentlemen. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> thank you. hartford financial next. we want to talk about the earnings because they were released just a minute ago. we'll hear how hartford is fairing after superstorm sandy and what he's expecting from the industry. you won't see this interview anywhere else. keep it right here. we're back in a moment. it's monday, a brand new start. with centurylink visionary cloud infrastructure,

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welcome back. some of the welcome back. some of the world's top billionaires joining together for a cause. we want to get to cnbc's editor robert frank who's got story. robert, over to you. >> it is the dream team of philanthropists. carlos slim is giving $100 million to the bill gates effort

to eradicate polio. now, slim was joined by five other billionaires in the cause. they include michael bloomberg, ray daalio, and prince al waleed. now, the aim of this project is to eliminate polio entirely around the world. it's going to cost around $5.5 billion for those vaccines. they've raised most of it. and the world's top billionaires are taemg up more and more in charity and business. bill gates and carlos slim are already teaming up in agricultural charities in central america. prince al waleed -- >> and besides the philanthropy and charity we're involved with mr. gates, we have a joint venture together in business. like the four season brand that we own. so it all is opportunities. when you say there's downturn, it just means there are opportunities. so always you look at any opportunity. >> and maria, just goes to show that in business and philanthropy they can both go hand and hand.

back to you. >> isn't that great? thank you so much, robert. great story. meanwhile, reporting reporting earnings just moments ago. mr. mcgee, good to see you again. thanks for joining us. >> hi, maria. it's great to be back with you. >> let me ask you this. characterize the quarter for us, but also tell us how the company is navigating these record low interest rates and of course catastrophic events including hurricane sandy. >> sure, maria. well, first of all, the quarter was a very good quarter for us on a number of fronts. as you were kind enough to note, we had 92 cents per share core earnings. $456 million. that was up 7% year over year. but what i'm proudest of, quite frankly, is that our go forward business is our property casualty business, our benefits business, and our mutual fund business were up 19% year over year. all that attributed to just

better operating fundamentals. the other thing, and it really is a follow-on to the last conversation you and i had. we made a lot of progress this quarter tarred our transformation of the firm. both the size and risk of our variable annuity book was reduced significantly. our runoff life business, talcot resolution is now capital self-sufficient. that's really a milestone for us because now it means that the capital generated by our go forward business can be used either for capital management actions or to invest in our businesses for future profitable growth. and finally, we have really an enhanced capital generation ability at the hartford, and it has financial flexibility, which is enabling us to develop -- we're in the process of developing our next phase of capital management plan. in terms of low interest rates, i think for our industry, now that we've become pretty much a property and casualty-oriented company, the real focus is on profitability versus volume.

so pricing discipline, underwriting discipline, as well as operating efficiencies are the levers we can control in response to low interest rates. and finally, sandy. go ahead. did you want me to comment on sandy, maria? >> yeah. i want to ask you about that in a second. but back to what you were just talking about in terms of the focus, you sold off many of the businesses last year so that you can focus on property and casualty. are you done deleverage or are you still in the middle of selling things? >> we have the businesses going forward that we're committed to. so we won't be selling any other businesses. we have deleveraged the firm from a debt perspective. that's part of our capital management plan that we're executing now. and we really brought the debt service coverage ratio of the company up to a much higher level. and our interest costs are down significantly. so from a deleveraging perspective we'll continue to do that over the next several years. but in '13 and '14 we won't be paying down any more debt than we've already committed to.

so we have the businesses that we like going forward, and we're going to invest in them, and we're committed to them. >> how big of a hit was hurricane sandy, sir? >> well, it was manageable for us. and the good news was that it was manageable for the industry. i think that's a great validation of the capital strength of the property and casualty industry. and secondly, i think that even though these were complicated claims, whether it be for individuals or for businesses, i'm really proud of how the hartford and the industry handled those claims with empathy, and with responsi responsiveness. what i would add is for us this was more of a small business event because as you know, maria, that is really the strength of the hartford's franchise. and many of those small businesses are still recovering. those that were affected. just a couple of statistics that you might find interesting. two out of three of those affected businesses lost power, and three out of four of the affected businesses from sandy had to close their doors or had

their business interrupted on an average seven days. some of those have not recovered even to this day. >> all right. we'll leave it there. liam mcgee, good to have you on the program. please come back soon. update us on the business. we love to hear it. and we appreciate your time tonight. thank you so much, sir. liam mcgee joining us. chairman chairman, president, ceo of the hartford. up next, lessons learned on our recent past and how they apply to markets today. stay with us. >> april >> april is financial literacy month. this is a good time to evaluate your financial know-how. it's not just about managing your investments. it's about planning for the future. understanding how to make the most of your money. we are committed to providing resources for viewers to make informed choices. join us in helping americans face the challenges of economic responsibility. it's monday.

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and and finally today, my observation on fundamentals. there was a show on this network many years ago that ended with the anchor saying "if it looks too good to be true it probably is." that was true then. it is never more true today. we went through this in the dotcom bubble of the '90s and then again in 2006 with the housing bubble. remember in the '90s we threw away fundamentals like earnings, revenue, cash flow? didn't matter. if an internet company had very little revenue, it was losing money, it was a new era. and we all know how that turned out. fast-forward five or six years, and remember the vibrancy of the housing market. pick any city, any state. i seem to like phoenix for some reason. the average home price in phoenix in 2006 was up 40% from a year earlier.

why? was the infrastructure any better? was there a population boom? was the school system better? no. the prices were going higher just because. we all know how that turned out. enter 2013 and all this hype surrounding so-called bit coins, which is a virtual currency with no government backing. at the highs the bit coin was worth $250. what is a bit coin? what is the fundamental reason to own bit coins? we are back to fundamentals. if it's too good to be true, it probably is. that'll do it for "closing bell" tonight. thank you so much forring joining us. i'll see you tomorrow live from l.a. "fast money" begins right now. live from the nasdaq marketsite in new york city's times square, i'm melissa lee. here's what fvt f"fast" is foll tonight. sell in main a look at whether bulls will retreat and give investors a trooenz worry. what the charts are telling us right now. if you get into the temptation to buy gold miners you may take a hit. what is wong